Action Alert - Reinstate Bottomley Fines

[Woolly Bugger]

We need everyone's help IMMEDIATELY!
Please ACT before June 4, 2023!

We need to all send emails to DEQ Secretary Elizabeth Biser and copy Jenny Graznack, the head of the local DWR office that had issued the violations for the Bottomleys. Since their fines have been vacated this is an effort to get the DEQ to reinstate the fines to correct this. Below are the email addresses where you should send the communication. Below the email addresses is a suggested letter. Below the Sincerely, please add your name.

Click here for an article with more detail. Feel free to add your own thoughts to the base letter below.

To: elizabeth.biser@ncdenr.gov
CC: jenny.graznak@ncdenr.gov
Subject: Reinstate Bottomley Fines

Secretary Elizabeth Biser,
Department of Water Quality

Jenny Graznak 
N.C. DEQ Water Resources
450 W. Hanes Mill Rd, Suite 30
Winston-Salem, NC 27105
 
Dear Secretary Elizabeth Biser,

I am a member of the Blue Ridge Chapter of Trout Unlimited in Winston Salem would like you to take immediate action to remedy the situation with the Bottomley Properties. Recently, Administrative Law Judge John Evans vacated the fines imposed on Bottomley Properties for damage they created in 2020 and 2021. I ask that this problem be fixed and fines reissued immediately.

The Bottomley Properties company destroyed three miles of brook trout streams two years ago and have a long history of violations. They have several current violations that are open and being mitigated. If violations are not levied immediately it will have set a dangerous precedent and send a message to violators that they can get away with destroying our streams at little to no cost.

This issue is not whether Bottomley caused egregious damage, that is documented fact. We now need to ensure the clean-up and proper penalties are imposed and paid by a company that has a history of repeatedly damaging the environment. Their continued actions show that consequences have not been severe enough for them to change and adhere to the environmental laws of North Carolina.

Thank you for all the work your office and staff have done to protect our waters. What you do today will set the tone for how companies will treat the laws of the land in the future.

Sincerely,